Open AccessThe Effect of Pink/Blue Clothing on Implicit and Explicit Gender‐Related Self‐Cognition and Attitudes Among Men
Author(s) -
Ishii Kunio,
Numazaki Makoto,
Tado'oka Yoshika
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/jpr.12241
Subject(s) - psychology , stereotype (uml) , clothing , ambivalence , social psychology , cognition , implicit attitude , association (psychology) , social cognition , developmental psychology , implicit association test , interpersonal communication , archaeology , neuroscience , psychotherapist , history
Abstract In many cultures worldwide, one stereotype emerges: Pink is associated with girls and blue is associated with boys. Based on the enclothed cognition theory, the present study examined the effects of men's pink clothing on gender‐related self‐cognition and sex‐role attitudes. Male Japanese participants wore either a pink or blue coat and completed a gender stereotype Implicit Association Test, a self‐rating scale, and gender attitude scales (a measure of egalitarian sex‐role attitude and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory). Results showed that among participants with low self‐esteem, the implicit self–feminine association was stronger in the pink condition than in the blue condition. On the other hand, participants with high self‐esteem explicitly associated themselves more with power‐oriented traits compared with interpersonal‐oriented traits when they wore a pink coat compared with those who wore a blue coat. Additionally, participants in the pink condition expressed stronger egalitarian sex‐role attitudes and weaker benevolent sexism than those in the blue condition. We propose that men's pink clothing is a means of diminishing gender stereotypes and traditional sex‐role attitudes.